Vex

Who needs bad luck.....my players bring their own anyway. We have played 4 times and one of the characters has his weapons set up with a 14 or less Activations with a 3d6 Side Effect and has consistently done more damage to himself that the enemies. To give you an idea of how bad it is he failed 30% of the activation rolls last night and that was the best he has done so far. Two Questions: 1. What is the percentage chance that you will roll 14 or less? 2. Side Effect skips defenses right? Otherwise, the defenses would generally soak any damage and the mantra is a limitation that doesn't limit isn't worth any points.

Why use Multiform Maybe a VPP with a limitation that can only be used for effects consistant with the sign transformed into. This also makes it easier if you want to add cusp forms (the cusp is anyone who is born near the first or last few days of a sign. For instance I am a Virgo on the cusp of a Leo and I should show some traits from both). If you do go with the multiform, it is a perfect chance for you to change the characters limitation (water signs have vulnerabilities to fire sfx, taurus has a enraged disad, etc) and to change the character's personality with a ready made list of quirks.

Vengefulness Some of the GLs have been pretty mean or have had serious character flaws. 1. Guy Gardner - has at tempts been insane and at his best was an arrogant braggart who was not above seriously injuring someone or destroying their property. 2. John Stewart - became a Darkstar (GL replacements) and was directly responsible for the death of a million or so people. 3. Hal Stewart - GL's shining star, but went crazy when San Francisco (Ocean City?) was destroyed, using his ring to recreate the Bay Area with emerald power, this led him to destroy the GL corp for a while. 4. Kyle Radner - was not very confident and was chosen at random, luckily he is a pretty honorable guy. Keep in mind that the main stat for a GL would be Ego as it is the character's force of will that controls the ring.

Experience and Radiation Accidents Colossus - His fighting abilites, Strength and Defenses increased as he aged, then after he was injured in a fight and healed by Magneto his Strength and Defenses improved dramatically. Wonder Man - Got stronger as he got more experienced, now has a Ion body. Emma Frost - Her mental abilities were pretty strong when she first appeared in comics (they have a series out that is showing how her powers developed) but in the last few years she has gained the ability to transform into a diamond hard form that is impervious to damage and mental powers (multiform as she cannot use her mental powers while in this form) The Beast - Gained experience and has gone through several radiation accidents. Psylocke - Went through several forms, powered armour (Captain Britain), mentalist/telekinetic in chain armour, psionic enhanced ninja (had psi knife and little else), psi ninja with her full mental powers, back to ninja and then to corpse. Angel - He has gone from a "regular" winged mutant, to death with metal wings that can shoot poisonous daggers, to a mutant that can manifest wings of pure energy to a winged mutant with the ability to heal with his blood. Warpath - Has gained quite a bit of skill, increased strength and defenses, and started adding new powers such as enhanced senses. Cannonball - When he first started he could barely turn his power on and he couldn't have it on very long (much less turn). Now he is a very competent leader and tactician, can fly on demand and has great control and can fire energy blasts. Aqua Man - Lost his hand and got a really cool hook, then lost the hook and has a magic hand made of water and can, uhm....still....uhm talk to fishies... Green Lantern - Most of them have gotten more powerful the longer they have the ring, but the Kyle Radner version (the main GL) started out with no experience and has slowly increased until he is one of the most powerful GLs ever. He has even gone through a radiation accident where he gained the power of all of the GL and became a "god" named ION. Although he didn't keep the power long, he did make it so that the ring only answered to him (removed the OIF off of his powers making the ring a special effect) and did not run out of power and need recharging every 24 hours, it still needs to be recharged periodically depending on useage, but it also has a small backup charge to keep him going in emergencies (he purchased another Endurance Reserve without the "needs recharging every day" limitation)

Commercialization I played in a game where one the characters could take on the powers of whatever music he was listening to. He had a focus to change and we built him as a multiform, if you could take away his music or damage the player, he was stuck in his current form. I don't remember all of his powers or the bands that he could morph into, but I remember he was supposed to be a guy reliving the 70's and 80's Metal bands. For instance, if he put in a Lynrd Skynrd album he would have the powers of the Freebird (flight, desolidfication vs. entangles and grabs), Black Sabbath would give him the powers of Iron Man (we would call him War Pig), etc. He could change his powers given time and new music, but could only keep a few forms ready at a time and had to have the music to change (5 I think). The bonus to this is ease of play. VPP work great, but they usually slow the game down and can sometimes stop a game all together. Maybe a small VPP would work as a gadget type power effect for those last minute saves.

Demon I would like to see some mini adventure that causes the pcs to endure slow demonic transformations that they must find a way to stop. I have run a game like this years ago and had a great time with it. It forced the players to really think about their characters and gave them a purpose above and beyond the norm (not just saving people, but trying to save yourself). One character managed to defeat the mental transformation and liked his new shiny black demon body so he didn't go for the cure and another character did the opposite. His body didn't change, but he was so positive that he had changed, that he started acting like a demon. It was great fun!

Seque See this thread shows how cool travelling around the world can be. I was lucky enough to get to go on a 2 week tour of Europe last year (Contiki tours are actually really fun if anyone is interested) and we had time to walk over to the British Museum and saw Playing Games and walked through it. Sorry about the completely random thoughts.

Hmmmm, let's see.... Adrenaline would help Deathwish (skills) and Nebula (Mental Powers) investigate the murder, trying to find the murderer. Then he would make sure that Captain Fantastic got into a alchol treatment program. Realm would have already arrested Captain Fantastic and trust in the DA and the defense attorney to figure out the truth (while secretly trying to find the answers himself). Hecabus would make sure it wasn't a scheme he cooked up and then keep an eye on the situation, because anyone that could pool this murder off is someone worth watching.

Exiles On the Juggernaut/Black Tom front, in Exiles it is very common for another dimension's character being a different sex. For instance, in the normal Marvel Universe Sunfire is a male and so is Sasquatch who is a scientist named Walter Longowski. In the Exiles universe the Sunfire character that was part of the group was a women and the Sasquatch character is Heather (can't remember last name it may be Hudson) and a black woman. In her native dimension this Heather was married to Wolverine. It is an enjoyable comic book and is a perfect front for my players to play Champions.

NPCs Soon to be seen NPCs: Realm - son of Gateway/gather of Bishop - Teleporter, X-Dim Teleportation (to his own pocket dimension), EB, Missle Deflection and Reflection SummerFrost - daughter of The White Queen (Emma Frost) and Cyclops (Scott Summers) - Can Transform into Ruby Quartz body (diamond hard), with Energy Absorbtion that feeds into strength and energy blast Emp - Rogue/Magento - Super Strength, Invulnerablity, Flight, Emp Pulse, Danger Sense Stunner - Longshot/Dazzler - Super Leap, Light Illusion (Short Range), HKA & RKA (Lasers), Luck Bale - Cannonball/Lila Cheney - Destructive Teleportation (Loud and Large Explosions) Element - Captain Britain/Meggan - Enhanced Strength & Invulnerablity, Flight, Some Shapeshifting, Elemental Blasts Talon - Wolverine/Jean Grey - Flaming Telekinesis (TK, Flight, FF), TK Claws and Healing Factor Mass - Colossus/Shadow Cat - Density Control, From Ghost to Organic Steel Wildcard - Domino/Cable - Acrobatic, Accurate Soldier, with Luck and Slight TK Powers Rook - Bishop/Sage - Eidetic Memory, Lightning Calculator, Absorbs Energy Blasts into Physical and Mental Strength Blackguard - Rogue/Gambit - Super Strength, Invulnerablity, Flight, Uncontrollable Charge Touch Obelisk - Juggernaut/Black Tom - Strength and Invulnerabilty, with a Bio-Blast, only through wood and possibly plant control Quell - Grown up version of Leech - His powers will supress any adjunct powers (mutations, mutates, radiactive accidents, etc) in a large range (16" radius), Combat and deductive skill training, Small gadget pool (mainly a gun) and the ability to show light images of items he thinks about (stolen power from Artie, who was accidentally drain over years)

My Exiles Campaign I am doing alot of this in my Exiles Campaign. Here are the characters in the game: Speedburst - son of Quicksilver and Meltdown - Incredible combat speed, Mach speed non combat, able to access and program computers at super speed, and explosive time bombs Thunderstorm - son of Thor and Storm - Base Asgard form (Strength, life support, damage resistance), Weather Control, Indirect Lightning Bolt, Wind Gusts, Flight, Valkerie and Storm sight and the ability to focus her energy to create an electricity based hammer to pound people with. The SuperPatriot - Steve Rogers - based on the SuperPatriot from Savage Dragon, but with the ability to not only make his arms into guns and missle launchers but also make a shield. One of the players loves Captain America and this character will be quite a surprise to him. Seraph - son of Warren Worthington (The Angel) and Betsy Braddock (Psylock) - Psionic energy gives him the ability to create wings made of pure energy, shot wing shards or a close range psi-knife that allows him to paralyze (EB vs. AVLD) opponents, psionic healing and regeneration. Genesis Forge - Alternative Dimension Forge - lightly armoured, mainly using guns and gadgets, only real power is the ability to "McGyver" almost any kind of machine (Major Transform)

Benevolent Tyranty Yeah, I enjoyed playing Hecabus. Meglomania is a blast, especially when you have the power and contacts to back it up. When the game went on hiatus, Hecabus and his group had two bases of operations, he was the leader of the Fire Giants, had destroyed the Hill Giants, finished a war with the Drow (led by vampires), was the "power behind" at least one throne, had several thousand followers, was negotiating the crown to the Ogre Magi nation, killed over 1,000,000 vampires (oh, and sacrificied himself in the process) leaving himself in a bizarre torpor waiting for all his followers to pilgramage to his crystal coffin and donate their blood and finish his accension into demigod-hood. Damn I miss playing him.

Hmmmm, let's see.... Adrenaline would have been drafted, fighting in the Marine's elite Meta-Marines squad. Realm, being the "sheriff" type character and friendly with the government would probably be the leader of the aforementioned Meta-Marines, leading his squad into suicide mission after suicide mission. Hecabus is generally at war. He is an anti-villian (I know it is a strange phrase, but he seeks power and wants to control and broaden his power base, but he wouldn't be evil to his subjects, rather he would be a nice monarch type dictator/divine king for life — I need to find another explanation of his power model). Currently he is involved in no less than 4 wars, so he would fit into War Earth all too well.

Hmmmm, let's see.... Adrenaline would protect the general populous. Realm would protect the streets of Dallas and the surrounding area, but try to save enough energy to help teleporting the inevitable counter attack of superheros. Hecabus would automatically go after the big alien dude running the show hoping to reconfigure the robots programming so they work for him ("hmmm, a planet full of robots I control....." =] ). If he couldn't take control of the robots he would most likely gather all the robots and start sending them at the people that have angered him (Lloth could very likely get a visit from several hundred thousand shiny envoys and the Council of Dragons would have to deal with a plaque of little metal "vermin".) As Hecabus always says, "If you can't beat them, taunt them!"

Hmmmm, let's see.... Adrenaline would be stoked. He can let his "normal" clone do all the website stuff (with a little help from him when he isn't out being a hero) and they can live off of the combined income. Realm would live with his clone (a regular police officer) and would go and get another id card for himself. I would assume that they would both be the sloppy guy in the Odd Couple and would hate each other. Hecabus would come back to his lair to find El' Rohir. Although Rohir is far from normal (being an epic level fighter/sorceror and the scary right hand to the king), Hecabus is much more powerful. They would team up to further their personal goals and power. They WOULD be the Odd couple, one being "nice" and "clean" (read as "elf") and the other would be "loud" and "messy" (read as "Hecabus"). The best part is they could do away with the whole Secret Identity thing and really concentrate and expanding their treasury and influence (read as trying to become "two gods").

Hmmmm, let's see.... Adrenaline would still be from Dallas and not much would change. Realm would be a government law enforcement agent. The south, being more militaristic would have a federal law enforcement set up instead of a local police force. Hecabus would be the govenor of California, helping to pass laws to make things more chaotic. I also think that Texas would have been a separate country. We pretty much are anyway and definately see ourselves as one. The reason for the lack of any racist overtones comes from Texas only partially being part of the war. No battles were fought near here and most people played little or no part in it. Also, slavery wasn't as wide spread and the Texas economy was based more on share cropping than mansions and slave trade.

Hmmmm, let's see.... Adrenaline would still be a web designer and wouldn't venture out very often. Realm would be a motivational speaker talking about conquering your individual short comings. Assuming everyone in the world had Hecabus' powers AND personality, El' rohir (his original elven form) would have either killed himself or would have been set up as the world's leader simply because a world full of Hecabus' would self-destruct unless there was a VERY impartial ruler.

Hmmmm, let's see.... Adrenline would be a freelance hack-jockey who can control the speed that he can program a system while also slowing down and tiring out his opponent. Realm would be a government employee that actively searches out virus programmers and hackers. Hecabus would be the leader of a powerful counter culture that bothed embraced the power of the establishment and yet fought the establishment for free control the domain.

Cool Idea My only suggestion is to see about buying some powers that reflect that the unaware victim of the power loss can hurt himself. A brick who loses his natural protection can shatter his arm easily by punching another brick, the speedster who used to have a innate ability to "slough" off friction caused by his high speed will suddenly start taking large amounts of damage as he runs, or the mutant blaster whose powers allow him to control a certain type of power and blast it out may no longer have control or the energy blast may hurt them too. This could be a trigger with variable effects set to go off when a character uses his main power.

Gotta Love the Colossus "A lot of this depends on how accurate to the Marvel Universe numbers you want to be. Colossus is supposed to be able to lift about 70 tons. That's "only" a STR of 58 or so in HERO. (Or even 48 if you want to assume that the 70 ton number includes Pushing.)" Keep in mind that Colossus was almost always listed as being "a growing boy". Meaning that he hadn't reached his full potential. Also, the listed referrenced was probably printed well before Colossus' "radiation accident" where Magneto healed him and greatly increased his strength. When he died his strength was probably close to 100. Also, all X-Men get martial arts and mental defenses as they are trained in that from day one.

I have just converted my friends over to a new 5th edition campaign. I am used to 2nd edition and it has been years since I have played so I have a weird Move Through question. When it says take 1/2 damage does that mean the attacker takes 1/2 damage and the victim takes 1/2 damage or does it mean that the attacker takes 1/2 damage and the victim takes full damage?

Hmmmm, let's see.... Adrenaline would freak out and search for help from the local wizard's council while trying to hide from everyone he knows, especially his fiancee. He, ooops, she would create a new hero identity so no one asked too many questions until the matter was resolved. Realm would still show up to work and do everything that he can to get the problem corrected. Lot's of people know his not so secret ID, and he is an officer of the law so he would expect to take lot's of grief and ribbing from his peers. He would probably make a few jokes of his own and then wonder off and take his agression out on some of the local mutant gangs. Hecabus would be amused and would walk around in that form until he needed to shift to another form. He would track down the person that cast the spell and offer him a high ranking place in his church. Anyone with the "balls" to pull a prank on him of that magnitude deserves to be rewarded!

Hmmmm, let's see.... Adrenaline would be Cassandra Ranxton, a daredevil of world reknown. Her powers came from the treatment of adrenal cancer, but the doctor's can no longer tell if the mutation that resulted from the radiation treatment is a cure or not. She would be a speeding brick with about a 30 Str and extremely good defenses and would be extremely reckless as she feels that she can die at any time so she should live life to the fullest. Realm would be the world's Catalyst. His name being derived not from his powers but from the kingdom that he is setting up. Hecabus would be a slight, non-assuming but very evil magical assassin working as the "silencer" for King Kain, most would think he was a simple servant. Campaign note, while Hecabus is really a D&D character, he is epic level (epic is above 20th level and he is at 35th level) and he is one of the few D&D characters with an actual secret identity. As Elrohir (Elven form) he is the King's "enforcer" and is often seen as the true power behind the thrown and as Hecabus (Ogre Magi form) he is the extremely formible and charismatic leader of a church seeking godhood.

First Characters My first Champions character was a one or two shot character named Titian. He was a stretching, Martial Artist with some good strength and a set of claws (don't ask I was really young). He almost killed the first villian he ran into, then stretch running to the hospital. The name was misspelled because I couldn't remember if Titan had an "a" or an "i" in it, so I mistakenly used both. The backstory for his name was the cub reporter that saw the fight misspelled the word. =] Titian made a come back years later as an energy stretching Martial Artist (arms didn't stretch, but he had a force field that did) and his personality changed a bit.

Hmmmm, let's see.... Adrenaline wouldn't betray a friend (or forgive someone who turned on him). Realm wouldn't break the law. Hecabus wouldn't miss a chance to gain an advantage, buck authority, get more power or play a prank on an unsuspecting pigeon... =]